The present invention relates to data center bridging, and more particularly, this invention relates to supporting data center bridging capabilities over virtual Ethernet networks.
In a network architecture, various components of the architecture such as switches, converged network adapters (CNAs), fibre channel forwarders (FCFs), etc. benefit from being able to exchange information with other components of the architecture to establish the configuration of the various components. To provide this capability, conventional architectures employ a data center bridging exchange (DCBX) protocol, which utilizes a link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) to distribute information between pairs of components and ultimately throughout the entire network architecture.
As network architectures develop towards software-defined networks and cloud computing, people are introducing various technologies to virtualize Ethernet connections. This virtualization presents unique challenges regarding establishing the configuration of an architecture including virtual components such as virtual switches, virtual machines, etc. These unique challenges prohibit the use of conventional DCBX protocols (such as LLDP) typically utilized to establish the configuration of architectures lacking virtual components. For example, LLDP does not support virtual fabrics or multi-hop environments and also cannot detect configuration errors between virtual switches.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide the ability to discover resources connected to an architecture including virtual components, and establish the scope and topology of the architecture.